--- title: Mother Teresa's Death: Read Original 1997 Obituary for Saint description: "Only physically did Mother Teresa's heart fail her," TIME Magazine observed following her death at 87 on Sept. 5, 1997 canonical: https://time.com/4926942/mother-teresa-death-report-obituary/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-05T15:22:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:16:42.585Z article:section: History og:title: Read TIME's Original 1997 Report on Mother Teresa's Death og:description: "Only physically did Mother Teresa's heart fail her," TIME Magazine observed following her death on Sept. 5, 1997 og:url: https://time.com/4926942/mother-teresa-death-report-obituary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt34ee32a7deeee36b/6988dc57fb4eac7693893923/teresa.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Mother Teresa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read TIME's Original 1997 Report on Mother Teresa's Death twitter:description: "Only physically did Mother Teresa's heart fail her," TIME Magazine observed following her death on Sept. 5, 1997 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt34ee32a7deeee36b/6988dc57fb4eac7693893923/teresa.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read TIME's Original 1997 Report on Mother Teresa's Death  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 5, 2017 3:22 PM UTC  Albanian Roman Catholic nun and founder of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997) at a hospice for the destitute and dying in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, 1969. Albanian Roman Catholic nun and founder of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997) at a hospice for the destitute and dying in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, 1969.Terry Fincher—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 5, 2017 3:22 PM UTC When Mother Teresa died at age 87 on Sept. 5, 1997 — precisely 20 years ago this Tuesday — after a years-long period of ill health, the world was sorrowful but not shocked. And the event was, in many ways, overshadowed by the death, [just a few days earlier,](http://time.com/4916157/special-report-princess-diana-death/) of Princess Diana. As TIME columnist Roger Rosenblatt [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1997-09-15/page/116/), the two had actually been together just a few months earlier in New York City, and their meeting had highlighted the differences and similarities between two women whose lives had spoken to hearts around the world. And yet, though [Mother Teresa’s life](http://time.com/4476076/mother-teresas-faith-history/) and death were the quieter ones, he wrote, they were ultimately the more significant. “To note that is not to compare them unfavorably, as they would not have thought of themselves as comparable,” Rosenblatt wrote. “They gravitated toward each other that day last June out of an intuitive love of the mystery of people. One is left with a similar affection for them, whom we knew on the way.” As the magazine explained in its obituary, such a life was not a foregone conclusion for Mother Teresa: --- > “” --- In a [particularly poignant letter to the editor](http://time.com/vault/issue/1997-10-06/page/14/), however, one reader objected to the article’s description of her cause of death: “Let it not be said that Mother Teresa died of heart failure,” he wrote. “It is far more accurate to say she had at long last given all her heart away.” Mother Teresa officially became a saint [last year.](http://time.com/4154838/mother-teresa-first-miracle/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4926942/mother-teresa-death-report-obituary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4926942/mother-teresa-death-report-obituary/"},"headline":"Read TIME's Original 1997 Report on Mother Teresa's Death","datePublished":"2017-09-05T15:22:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:16:42.585Z","description":"\"Only physically did Mother Teresa's heart fail her,\" TIME Magazine observed following her death at 87 on Sept. 5, 1997","url":"https://time.com/4926942/mother-teresa-death-report-obituary/","keywords":["remembrance","faith","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt34ee32a7deeee36b/6988dc57fb4eac7693893923/teresa.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt34ee32a7deeee36b/6988dc57fb4eac7693893923/teresa.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mother Teresa","caption":"Mother Teresa","creditText":"Terry Fincher—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4926942/mother-teresa-death-report-obituary/","name":"Read TIME's Original 1997 Report on Mother Teresa's Death"}}]}] ```